1. Field of Invention
The invention relates to stock products in general including seasonings.
2. Description of the Related Art
Stock products are generally products produced from, optionally, meat, meat extract, protein hydrolysates, fats, vegetables and/or vegetable extracts with addition of salt, herbs and/or seasonings. The best-known stock products are meat stock products, such as, for example, meat stock produced from meat (including poultry and game) and/or meat extract with addition of fats, vegetables or vegetable extracts, seasonings, herbs and salt. Prepared in advance industrially, these are offered in granular or powder or paste form. The invention relates to stock products generally, including seasonings, and meat stock products in particular in paste form. Stock cubes are taken to mean here products which are marketable in individual portions or packaged pasty products without regard to their geometric size, that is they can be present in cubes, in parallelepipeds, in the form of tablets or any other three-dimensional shape. The term "paste form" includes a wide consistency range and comprises pasty products, as are customarily packaged in tubes, and also relatively solid products which can only be deformed under strong pressure, such as conventional soup cubes. Bouillon cubes are among the most preferred embodiments of the present invention.
The invention relates to a process for producing stock cubes which can be converted by the consumer by dispersion in water and, if appropriate, heating, into stock products, for example a ready-to-eat meat broth.
Stock cubes of this type have hitherto been prepared in the batch process, the starting products having been mixed to form a batch, which had to be stored for a relatively long time, for example 6-24 hours at room temperature, to age and it was only then converted by extrusion and/or pressing into the typical marketable cube shape.
Batch processes of this type are disadvantageous, not only because of the process duration, but also because of the quality variations from batch to batch as a function of the critical ageing time and temperature of the large batch volume and because of the equipment requirements.
The use of extruders in the food industry is widely known. Thus, EP-A1 484707 relates to a machine for extruding a food paste, as is typically used for producing pancakes or doughnuts.
GB-B 1498120 discloses dehydrated foodstuffs, in particular including broths, which are to be instantly soluble in water. To achieve this solubility, they are to be present as grains having a porous structure, having a density of 30-600 g/l. Products of this type can be produced by extruding the mass into a chamber in which a subatmospheric pressure prevails.
EP-A2-775 446 relates to an assembled confectionery product based on fat, for example, chocolate, which is produced by extrusion with the use of pressure.
RU 2073470 C1 describes the manufacture of a semi-finished sauce product by mixing the components during 8-10 minutes and subsequently extruding the mass into the form of batons.
These publications give no indications as to how the problems in the production of stock cubes can be solved which usually are manufactured by a batch-process including a lengthy ripening period.
It has now been found that stock cubes of this type can advantageously be produced continuously, with not only engineering advantages being achieved, but also advantages in the product. The products produced according to the invention are frequently distinguished by a higher water solubility than compressed cubes produced in a conventional manner, they are surprisingly homogeneous and of constant quality and can be packaged simply and continuously. Furthermore, stock cubes having a relatively low fat content can also be produced according to the invention.